>>> 1 in 4 Americans has a sexually transmitted disease.
Where do you get this?
>>>Studies have shown that the use of condoms decrease the likliehood of getting sexually transmitted diseases by 70%.
Read your article. Studies show that inconsistant condom use decreases std risk by 70%. Studies with consistant condom use with an infected partner show a 0-2% transmission of HIV.
>>>Combine these two numbers.25 *.30
You still have a.075 (7.5% chance) of getting an STD from a new partner, and that's only if you always use condoms.
Going with the 2% rate with consistant use instead of the 30% inconsistant use rate, that's a.5% chance, and that's if you don't insist your partner get tested beforehand. If your partner doesn't have an std, your chance of getting one is 0.
>>>You assume that just because people are having sex before marriage then they are happy to do so.
Uh, if they aren't happy to have sex, then why are they having it?
>>>Another study showed that among those that have engaged in premarital sex, 40% of them regretted the decision.
Dude, you pull a study out of nowhere, that's 15 years old, on a subject as subjective as how people feel about sex, and you expect me to take it at face value? The article doesn't even go into how the study was done, how many people were involved, what kind of questions were asked, whether the people regretted one sex act or all premarital sex, regretted doing it without protection, regreted it because they found out the boy didn't really love them, etc. I tried googling for more information on the study, and found nothing. I really have to know more about the study to be able to take it for anything.
That said, I really don't think we'll agree on whether or not people regret premarital sex. Obviously you were happy waiting until marriage, and presumably have many friends who were as well, whereas I was happy not waiting (past tense used since I'm now married) and I have many friends of the same viewpoint. I think the only thing to do is accept that we have different experiences and ideals. However, I strongly feel that correct infomation on birth control should be taught to kids in sex ed classes. Even the kids who are abstinent until marriage can benefit from birth control infomation, unless they want to have an endless stream of kids or be abstinent *during* marriage.
>>>Many STD's can't be stopped by a condom. (and some, like AIDS, can kill you.)
Most STDs, including AIDS, are stopped by condoms. This is what I hate about the abstinance-only movement, they tend to lie about how effective condoms are. You know when you tell kids that condoms are uneffective so you shouldn't have sex, they hear that condoms are uneffective, so they have sex without them. The grandparent poster had sex when he was 12, do you really think anyone could have convinced hom to wait another 10 years (22 being an average age to get married) or longer to have sex?!?
>>>You seem to think that it's okay for people to have sex, as long as they're "being safe about it." When I was in High School (graduated in 1999), it was uncommon for people to have sex. There were a few girls who got pregnant while in high school, but not a large number. Now, we're seeing teen pregnancy rates rise, people losing their virginity at an even younger age, and even girls in middle school starting to get pregnant.
I graduated in 2000. I'm not quite sure what planet you're from, because I was considered a late-bloomer for not having sex until senior year. However, despite the fact that everyone I knew was going at it like bunnies, not a single girl I know got pregnant in high school. You want to know why? Because they taught us condoms work! Seriously, go study teen pregnancy rates in states with comprehensive sex education (like New Jersey) versus states with abstinance-only education (like Texas, at three times the rate of NJ). (the chart is divided up by republican states (red) and democratic states (blue), republican states being more likely to have abstinence-only education, and democratic states being more likely to have comprehensive sex ed).
I have no problems with telling kids to be abstinent until marriage, just don't lie to them about condom-effectiveness and don't be that surprised when they ignore you. Some people are happy waiting for marriage, but obviously the vast majority in our culture are not.
Gore won the popular vote (50,999,897 to 50,456,002), so in my mind, that should have made him president. Yes, Bush got the electoral vote, and yes, we've used the electoral college since the founding of our country, but, IMHO, it's a stupid system that never should have been invented in the first place. You want to talk about "cutsie [sic] games with statistical fluctuations"? That's our electoral college for you. Why we couldn't have put the man in office that got the most votes is beyond me.
Forgot some important words in my last post, so I'm reposting. Added words in bold.
>>>Since when is 17 a kid? In a couple months, they can vote, marry, serve in the military, smoke, buy guns and fuck legally.
Actually, I think in most states (or maybe just mine) you can legally fuck and marry at 16. So, yeah, you're allowed to have sex, but see it in a video game, horrors!
>>>Since when is 17 a kid? In a couple months, they can vote, marry, serve in the military, smoke, buy guns and fuck legally.
Actually, I think in most states (or maybe just mine) you can legally fuck and marry. So, yeah, you're allowed to have sex, but see it in a video game, horrors!
That article was interesting, thank you for posting it. However, it just reinforces my viewpoint that if Rockstar hadn't hidden it, just left it in, it would still have gotten an M rating and there would not have been this big of a controversy. As the article said, God of War had more sex and better nudity, and it still got an M rating. R rated movies have full-frontal, actual people nudity and sex, so why is it a big deal if M rated games have clothed pixilated sex? I just don't get it.
Also, you made a comment about 14 year olds being ok with violence, but sex in games might give them wrong ideas about girls. I'm thinking though that a game with prostitutes (where you can kill her afterwards) would give them worse ideas than a game with consensual, non-professional sex. But that's might just be my crazy opinion.
>>>The girlfriend is going down on said guy with oral sex.
The girlfriend is going down on said guy's pants. Which, actually, just makes it look stupid. There's more explicit stuff in prime time TV. There's more explicit stuff in R-rated movies. There's more explicit stuff in books. Hell, there's just as explicit stuff in other M-rated games! This whole thing has just been a witch-hunt against Rockstar, and videogames in general, and this grandma, and you, and countless other people have all jumped on the bandwagon. Hope you're having a fun ride.
>>> I don't know about you, but I don't see too many 13 year olds who are walking into a store with $49.99 in their pockets...but what do I know.
No, but there's plenty of 13 year olds walking in with their clueless parents. Oh, maybe the parent will ask *their kid* if they're mature enough for the game (guess what the kid says...), but then they'll ignore the cashier who despretely tries to explain that the game is not for a 13 year old ("Yeah, I know, it has swearing" "Uh, yeah, and you can beat prostitutes to death after having sex with them in this game" "Whatever")
After working at a game store for a year, I really can't blame cashiers for not carding. Carding kids usually just means having to argue with some dumb-ass parent. When parents start caring about what games their kids buy, then retailers will start caring.
>>>...and XXX Volleyball are still on store shelves...
XXX Volleyball? You mean DOAX Beach Volleyball? The game were girls play volleyball in swimsuits? Why on earth are you comparing a volleyball game to a sex mod?
To be far, the ESRB is smoking the same crack as you. DOA Volleyball is DOA3 with volleyball instead of violence, and it gets an M rating instead of T. Makes no fucking sense at all.
Wow, someone else besides me actually cares that they haven't done that! Seriously, I have FF 1-9 minus 3 on my playstation, and that's really annoying. Supposedly it's coming out for DS, but it's just not the same. Of course, I'ld probably buy it for both systems like I did with FF1+2, but that might just be because I'm dumb.
Ok, that was horribly off-topic and rather pointless. But more on off-topicness, what's wrong with SNES-itis? The SNES is a great system that I still play. Seriously. I played Illusion of Gaia yesterday. I'm a freak. I'll go away now.
>>Basically, you have no sense of business. Follow the money. The games industry is an industry first, an art a distant second.
I wasn't saying it should be on Cube because it would be more artsy or whatever you were going for here, I was saying it should be on Cube because SC2 sold the most on Cube. Now, some of them will probably buy SC3 on PS2, but some don't have PS2s, some won't buy SC3 for other reasons, and some will realize the only reason they bought SC2 was for Link (and there were a lot of people in this catagory) who might have bought SC3 for Cube, but there's not a chance they'll buy it for PS2. I'm not sure what they're doing with SC3 to make the people who didn't buy SC2 want it, but I really don't think they'll find enough new customers to replace the XBox and Cube fans they're losing. Of course, this is only speculation. We'll find out who's right when SC3 comes out.
With the 360 and the PS3 releases so soon, it doesn't really make much sense to make it for PS2, let alone PS2 only. The Gamecube version of SC2 sold much better than the PS2 version anyway, so I think they definately choose the wrong system to be exclusive to.
...nude figures shouldn't have been in an M rated game in the first place.
Actually, I'm pretty sure there weren't nude people in it, I think that's added by another patch (much like the nude patches for Sims). By default, Hot Coffee just has them having sex in their clothes (much like in Playboy, another M-rated game).
Wow, I know way to much about video game sex. I need a new hobby.
My "computer learning" as a kid included tweaking files, twiddling bits, etc., and I would hope that my kids can feel free to do the same without too many unexpected surprises.
While that's a good way to learn stuff, why would your kids be doing that with GTA? If you let your kids hack mature rated games, is it that surprising they might find hidden mature content? Of course, I might be the only person who thinks that even with Hot Coffee it should only be rated M, but still, I can't imagine a kid being mature enough for the rest of GTA (any of them) and not being mature enough to see some sex. Killing a girl in-game won't affect a kid's psyche at all but having sex with her will?
If you want your kids to hack computer games, start by buying them games that are appropriate for them, then, if they find a hidden sex scene in Super Mario Bros, you'll have an arguement.
>>>With linux you still gotta pick things like ext2, swap partitions and other even weirder stuff.
Not really. I installed Ubuntu recently, and I just told it to install itself on the free space, and it did just fine. Didn't have to pick sizes or types or anything.
>>>With windows (driver wise), most of them can go to logitech.com or hp.com and download drivers in a snap, run setup.exe and click next 12 times and all their stuff works.
With Ubuntu, I didn't even have to do that, all the drivers were already there. I had some problem with the sound, but a little checking on some message boards and I got it to work. Certainly was a lot easier than trying to figure out what hardware needs drivers, what the exact name of the thing is so I can find the right website, downloading & installing it, and having it not
work because I downloaded the one with a version number one off from the one I have and wasteing 20 minutes before I realize what's wrong...
>>>If you think linux has gotten easier to install than windows, perhaps it's because you've intalled linux a few too many times lately (or haven't seen windows in a long time) or whatever, because it's just not the case.
Untill about a week ago, I was a windows person who thought linux was just too hard and confusing. But I tried Ubuntu, and it's really amazing. I thought there'ld be some learning curve before I could really use it for useful things, and I'ld probably wind up back to windows before I'ld even figured out how to connect to the internet or something. To my surprise, I figured the important things out almost instantly, and I discovered everything I ever want to do on a computer I can do, often easier or better, on Ubuntu. If you really think Linux is that hard, you really need to try Ubuntu.
I heard that there's something wrong with the karma system where you don't get karma for Funny so people will mod funny things Insightful so the person gets karma. That's probably why it's insightful.
Would it even have been rated AO even if they left it in? The Playboy game has sex too, and it's rated M. Even with the nude patch, it's nowhere near as bad the scary hentai games that make up most the AO games.
This uproar has nothing to do with the mod itself, it's just used as an excuse by some moral crusaders to try to bring down Rockstar. At least, that's why I tell myself, because otherwise I really can't understand why anyone even cares.
>>>little under half of them cannot pay anything a month
If they can't afford $50, they can't afford to purchase a single video game, and they certainly can't afford a console. Oh wait, their parents bought them that stuff? Gee, I wonder what else fits in the xmas stocking...
It's the addition of a monthly payment that you have to keep up with that's the problem. Every few months I usually have the money for a used $20 game, but sometimes I don't. If I had had a monthly bill for XBox Live, I might not be able to buy any more games, and I'ld have to worry about another bill every month I have to make sure gets paid. I think my situation is the kind of situation grandparent poster was talking about.
Blu-ray isn't "the" established standard. People aren't going to be purchasing them because they want both a next gen movie format + game box -- they don't know which format will come on top. This means that only people who are convinced that blu-ray will come out on top will consider this a good deal.
If PS3 has Blu-Ray, and XBox doesn't have HD-DVD, then Blu-Ray will become the established standard. Millions of people will buy the PS3 pretty much irregardless of what they do, which will give Blu-Ray a very good base to work with.
this was the problem with the PS2... half of my [admitedly small] PS1 library didn't work right on the PS2
I haven't heard of that problem. I have about 65 PS1 games, and I've never had any problems with the PS2 playing any of them. What games do you have problems with?
I agree. I'm a Nintendo fangirl, but I still like the benefits of having 3 competitive systems. Stuff is cheaper (then I think they'ld be otherwise), there are more games (again, IMHO), and each system can cater to a little bit different niche instead of one having to be everything for everyone. I hate the attitude that one system must "win". They can all easily co-exist nicely, making more and better and cheaper games for us.:)
>>Next, you have to make the argument that you are safe at home no matter what illicit content can be found on a Rockstar disk, so long at is accessible only through a third-party mod.
If you don't want to play the Hot Coffee mod, it's not going to download itself and surprise you the next time you go play GTA. If you're worried about kids getting it, well, if you can't figure out how to prevent them from getting the mod then they've probably seen WAY to much porn for it to matter then.
>>> How hard would it have been to had both? Movie and television content already does this (although the thermometers are descriptive instead of numeric).
the ESRB also has content discriptions too, like movies and television. IMHO, the ESRB discriptions are better and clearer than the other ones.
Dude, I feel bad for you. That was the worst porn I've ever seen. I also feel bad for anyone who actually modded their game for it, wasting all that time just to play that.
Why would Rockstar have to show the ESRB stuff that wouldn't actually work on the final game? And how inappriopriate is an M rating, really? AO seems to only be for scary hentai games anyways, so I don't think they would have given it an AO anyways. I really don't understand why anyone cares about this stupid mod anyways.
>>>A movies-style ratings system is the best hope that the videogames industry has of avoiding outright censorship.
Videogames have a movie style ratings system! What do you think the ESRB is?
Slashdot Mirror
>>> 1 in 4 Americans has a sexually transmitted disease.
.25 * .30
You still have a .075 (7.5% chance) of getting an STD from a new partner, and that's only if you always use condoms.
.5% chance, and that's if you don't insist your partner get tested beforehand. If your partner doesn't have an std, your chance of getting one is 0.
Where do you get this? >>>Studies have shown that the use of condoms decrease the likliehood of getting sexually transmitted diseases by 70%.
Read your article. Studies show that inconsistant condom use decreases std risk by 70%. Studies with consistant condom use with an infected partner show a 0-2% transmission of HIV.
>>>Combine these two numbers
Going with the 2% rate with consistant use instead of the 30% inconsistant use rate, that's a
>>>You assume that just because people are having sex before marriage then they are happy to do so.
Uh, if they aren't happy to have sex, then why are they having it?
>>>Another study showed that among those that have engaged in premarital sex, 40% of them regretted the decision.
Dude, you pull a study out of nowhere, that's 15 years old, on a subject as subjective as how people feel about sex, and you expect me to take it at face value? The article doesn't even go into how the study was done, how many people were involved, what kind of questions were asked, whether the people regretted one sex act or all premarital sex, regretted doing it without protection, regreted it because they found out the boy didn't really love them, etc. I tried googling for more information on the study, and found nothing. I really have to know more about the study to be able to take it for anything.
That said, I really don't think we'll agree on whether or not people regret premarital sex. Obviously you were happy waiting until marriage, and presumably have many friends who were as well, whereas I was happy not waiting (past tense used since I'm now married) and I have many friends of the same viewpoint. I think the only thing to do is accept that we have different experiences and ideals. However, I strongly feel that correct infomation on birth control should be taught to kids in sex ed classes. Even the kids who are abstinent until marriage can benefit from birth control infomation, unless they want to have an endless stream of kids or be abstinent *during* marriage.
>>>Many STD's can't be stopped by a condom. (and some, like AIDS, can kill you.)
Most STDs, including AIDS, are stopped by condoms. This is what I hate about the abstinance-only movement, they tend to lie about how effective condoms are. You know when you tell kids that condoms are uneffective so you shouldn't have sex, they hear that condoms are uneffective, so they have sex without them. The grandparent poster had sex when he was 12, do you really think anyone could have convinced hom to wait another 10 years (22 being an average age to get married) or longer to have sex?!?
>>>You seem to think that it's okay for people to have sex, as long as they're "being safe about it." When I was in High School (graduated in 1999), it was uncommon for people to have sex. There were a few girls who got pregnant while in high school, but not a large number. Now, we're seeing teen pregnancy rates rise, people losing their virginity at an even younger age, and even girls in middle school starting to get pregnant.
I graduated in 2000. I'm not quite sure what planet you're from, because I was considered a late-bloomer for not having sex until senior year. However, despite the fact that everyone I knew was going at it like bunnies, not a single girl I know got pregnant in high school. You want to know why? Because they taught us condoms work! Seriously, go study teen pregnancy rates in states with comprehensive sex education (like New Jersey) versus states with abstinance-only education (like Texas, at three times the rate of NJ). (the chart is divided up by republican states (red) and democratic states (blue), republican states being more likely to have abstinence-only education, and democratic states being more likely to have comprehensive sex ed).
I have no problems with telling kids to be abstinent until marriage, just don't lie to them about condom-effectiveness and don't be that surprised when they ignore you. Some people are happy waiting for marriage, but obviously the vast majority in our culture are not.
Gore won the popular vote (50,999,897 to 50,456,002), so in my mind, that should have made him president. Yes, Bush got the electoral vote, and yes, we've used the electoral college since the founding of our country, but, IMHO, it's a stupid system that never should have been invented in the first place. You want to talk about "cutsie [sic] games with statistical fluctuations"? That's our electoral college for you. Why we couldn't have put the man in office that got the most votes is beyond me.
Forgot some important words in my last post, so I'm reposting. Added words in bold.
>>>Since when is 17 a kid? In a couple months, they can vote, marry, serve in the military, smoke, buy guns and fuck legally.
Actually, I think in most states (or maybe just mine) you can legally fuck and marry at 16. So, yeah, you're allowed to have sex, but see it in a video game, horrors!
>>>Since when is 17 a kid? In a couple months, they can vote, marry, serve in the military, smoke, buy guns and fuck legally.
Actually, I think in most states (or maybe just mine) you can legally fuck and marry. So, yeah, you're allowed to have sex, but see it in a video game, horrors!
>>>How many Senators and Representatives are young enough to have played realistic video games in their youth??
Dude, how many Senators and Reps are young enough to have played video games at all in their youth?! Any?
That article was interesting, thank you for posting it. However, it just reinforces my viewpoint that if Rockstar hadn't hidden it, just left it in, it would still have gotten an M rating and there would not have been this big of a controversy. As the article said, God of War had more sex and better nudity, and it still got an M rating. R rated movies have full-frontal, actual people nudity and sex, so why is it a big deal if M rated games have clothed pixilated sex? I just don't get it.
Also, you made a comment about 14 year olds being ok with violence, but sex in games might give them wrong ideas about girls. I'm thinking though that a game with prostitutes (where you can kill her afterwards) would give them worse ideas than a game with consensual, non-professional sex. But that's might just be my crazy opinion.
>>>The girlfriend is going down on said guy with oral sex.
The girlfriend is going down on said guy's pants. Which, actually, just makes it look stupid. There's more explicit stuff in prime time TV. There's more explicit stuff in R-rated movies. There's more explicit stuff in books. Hell, there's just as explicit stuff in other M-rated games! This whole thing has just been a witch-hunt against Rockstar, and videogames in general, and this grandma, and you, and countless other people have all jumped on the bandwagon. Hope you're having a fun ride.
>>> I don't know about you, but I don't see too many 13 year olds who are walking into a store with $49.99 in their pockets...but what do I know.
No, but there's plenty of 13 year olds walking in with their clueless parents. Oh, maybe the parent will ask *their kid* if they're mature enough for the game (guess what the kid says...), but then they'll ignore the cashier who despretely tries to explain that the game is not for a 13 year old ("Yeah, I know, it has swearing" "Uh, yeah, and you can beat prostitutes to death after having sex with them in this game" "Whatever")
After working at a game store for a year, I really can't blame cashiers for not carding. Carding kids usually just means having to argue with some dumb-ass parent. When parents start caring about what games their kids buy, then retailers will start caring.
>>>...and XXX Volleyball are still on store shelves...
XXX Volleyball? You mean DOAX Beach Volleyball? The game were girls play volleyball in swimsuits? Why on earth are you comparing a volleyball game to a sex mod?
To be far, the ESRB is smoking the same crack as you. DOA Volleyball is DOA3 with volleyball instead of violence, and it gets an M rating instead of T. Makes no fucking sense at all.
>>Why not port Final Fantasy III ... to the PSX?
Wow, someone else besides me actually cares that they haven't done that! Seriously, I have FF 1-9 minus 3 on my playstation, and that's really annoying. Supposedly it's coming out for DS, but it's just not the same. Of course, I'ld probably buy it for both systems like I did with FF1+2, but that might just be because I'm dumb.
Ok, that was horribly off-topic and rather pointless. But more on off-topicness, what's wrong with SNES-itis? The SNES is a great system that I still play. Seriously. I played Illusion of Gaia yesterday. I'm a freak. I'll go away now.
>>Basically, you have no sense of business. Follow the money. The games industry is an industry first, an art a distant second.
I wasn't saying it should be on Cube because it would be more artsy or whatever you were going for here, I was saying it should be on Cube because SC2 sold the most on Cube. Now, some of them will probably buy SC3 on PS2, but some don't have PS2s, some won't buy SC3 for other reasons, and some will realize the only reason they bought SC2 was for Link (and there were a lot of people in this catagory) who might have bought SC3 for Cube, but there's not a chance they'll buy it for PS2. I'm not sure what they're doing with SC3 to make the people who didn't buy SC2 want it, but I really don't think they'll find enough new customers to replace the XBox and Cube fans they're losing. Of course, this is only speculation. We'll find out who's right when SC3 comes out.
With the 360 and the PS3 releases so soon, it doesn't really make much sense to make it for PS2, let alone PS2 only. The Gamecube version of SC2 sold much better than the PS2 version anyway, so I think they definately choose the wrong system to be exclusive to.
...nude figures shouldn't have been in an M rated game in the first place.
Actually, I'm pretty sure there weren't nude people in it, I think that's added by another patch (much like the nude patches for Sims). By default, Hot Coffee just has them having sex in their clothes (much like in Playboy, another M-rated game).
Wow, I know way to much about video game sex. I need a new hobby.
My "computer learning" as a kid included tweaking files, twiddling bits, etc., and I would hope that my kids can feel free to do the same without too many unexpected surprises.
While that's a good way to learn stuff, why would your kids be doing that with GTA? If you let your kids hack mature rated games, is it that surprising they might find hidden mature content? Of course, I might be the only person who thinks that even with Hot Coffee it should only be rated M, but still, I can't imagine a kid being mature enough for the rest of GTA (any of them) and not being mature enough to see some sex. Killing a girl in-game won't affect a kid's psyche at all but having sex with her will?
If you want your kids to hack computer games, start by buying them games that are appropriate for them, then, if they find a hidden sex scene in Super Mario Bros, you'll have an arguement.
>>>With linux you still gotta pick things like ext2, swap partitions and other even weirder stuff.
Not really. I installed Ubuntu recently, and I just told it to install itself on the free space, and it did just fine. Didn't have to pick sizes or types or anything.
>>>With windows (driver wise), most of them can go to logitech.com or hp.com and download drivers in a snap, run setup.exe and click next 12 times and all their stuff works.
With Ubuntu, I didn't even have to do that, all the drivers were already there. I had some problem with the sound, but a little checking on some message boards and I got it to work. Certainly was a lot easier than trying to figure out what hardware needs drivers, what the exact name of the thing is so I can find the right website, downloading & installing it, and having it not work because I downloaded the one with a version number one off from the one I have and wasteing 20 minutes before I realize what's wrong...
>>>If you think linux has gotten easier to install than windows, perhaps it's because you've intalled linux a few too many times lately (or haven't seen windows in a long time) or whatever, because it's just not the case.
Untill about a week ago, I was a windows person who thought linux was just too hard and confusing. But I tried Ubuntu, and it's really amazing. I thought there'ld be some learning curve before I could really use it for useful things, and I'ld probably wind up back to windows before I'ld even figured out how to connect to the internet or something. To my surprise, I figured the important things out almost instantly, and I discovered everything I ever want to do on a computer I can do, often easier or better, on Ubuntu. If you really think Linux is that hard, you really need to try Ubuntu.
I heard that there's something wrong with the karma system where you don't get karma for Funny so people will mod funny things Insightful so the person gets karma. That's probably why it's insightful.
>>>Thankfully, there is, and will only ever be, one generation of these guys.
You are more optimistic than me.
Would it even have been rated AO even if they left it in? The Playboy game has sex too, and it's rated M. Even with the nude patch, it's nowhere near as bad the scary hentai games that make up most the AO games.
This uproar has nothing to do with the mod itself, it's just used as an excuse by some moral crusaders to try to bring down Rockstar. At least, that's why I tell myself, because otherwise I really can't understand why anyone even cares.
>>>little under half of them cannot pay anything a month
...
... half of my [admitedly small] PS1 library didn't work right on the PS2
If they can't afford $50, they can't afford to purchase a single video game, and they certainly can't afford a console. Oh wait, their parents bought them that stuff? Gee, I wonder what else fits in the xmas stocking
It's the addition of a monthly payment that you have to keep up with that's the problem. Every few months I usually have the money for a used $20 game, but sometimes I don't. If I had had a monthly bill for XBox Live, I might not be able to buy any more games, and I'ld have to worry about another bill every month I have to make sure gets paid. I think my situation is the kind of situation grandparent poster was talking about.
Blu-ray isn't "the" established standard. People aren't going to be purchasing them because they want both a next gen movie format + game box -- they don't know which format will come on top. This means that only people who are convinced that blu-ray will come out on top will consider this a good deal.
If PS3 has Blu-Ray, and XBox doesn't have HD-DVD, then Blu-Ray will become the established standard. Millions of people will buy the PS3 pretty much irregardless of what they do, which will give Blu-Ray a very good base to work with.
this was the problem with the PS2
I haven't heard of that problem. I have about 65 PS1 games, and I've never had any problems with the PS2 playing any of them. What games do you have problems with?
I agree. I'm a Nintendo fangirl, but I still like the benefits of having 3 competitive systems. Stuff is cheaper (then I think they'ld be otherwise), there are more games (again, IMHO), and each system can cater to a little bit different niche instead of one having to be everything for everyone. I hate the attitude that one system must "win". They can all easily co-exist nicely, making more and better and cheaper games for us. :)
>>Next, you have to make the argument that you are safe at home no matter what illicit content can be found on a Rockstar disk, so long at is accessible only through a third-party mod.
If you don't want to play the Hot Coffee mod, it's not going to download itself and surprise you the next time you go play GTA. If you're worried about kids getting it, well, if you can't figure out how to prevent them from getting the mod then they've probably seen WAY to much porn for it to matter then.
>>> How hard would it have been to had both? Movie and television content already does this (although the thermometers are descriptive instead of numeric).
the ESRB also has content discriptions too, like movies and television. IMHO, the ESRB discriptions are better and clearer than the other ones.
My wife and I don't have sex that hot.
Dude, I feel bad for you. That was the worst porn I've ever seen. I also feel bad for anyone who actually modded their game for it, wasting all that time just to play that.
Why would Rockstar have to show the ESRB stuff that wouldn't actually work on the final game? And how inappriopriate is an M rating, really? AO seems to only be for scary hentai games anyways, so I don't think they would have given it an AO anyways. I really don't understand why anyone cares about this stupid mod anyways.
>>>A movies-style ratings system is the best hope that the videogames industry has of avoiding outright censorship.
Videogames have a movie style ratings system! What do you think the ESRB is?